An Unlikely Companion
by Black Stormraven
Summary: Asajj picks up a companion she doesn't really want. (Obi-Wan will show up later.)


**I just couldn't get the image of Asajj being a reluctant caretaker of a puppy out of my head. There will be a second chapter!**

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><p>"Unfortunately, this happens all too often. People go on vacation, pick up an exotic pet, and when they get them home they realize just how much work they and dump them in the street. A disgusting practice." The Rodian got more riled up as he went on, absentmindedly closing down various scanners and tools he'd used in the examination.<p>

Asajj had listened to the vet's increasingly impassioned rantings without saying a word, but now her patience had run out. "But what _is_ it?" she snapped.

"It's an _akk_ dog. A reptomammalian species native to Haruun Kal." Now the Rodian adopted a tone of something near wonder, stroking the peculiar animal's armored head as he talked. "Remarkable creatures. Incredibly strong, amazing hunters and protectors, and even attuned to the Force itself." Asajj blinked; well, that was mildly interesting. "But they are very much jungle animals; why anyone thought bringing one, especially a baby, to a city-planet was a good idea is worthy of jail time."

Asajj cut him off before he could go into another rant. "So what will happen to it now?" She pushed the dog's head away as it stood on its hind legs and tried to nuzzle her neck. "Is there some zoo or something you can send it to, or send it back home? Knock it off!" That last part was directed at the dog when it licked her face.

The vet smiled. "I think she's already decided on where she wants to be."

Oh no. No. _NO! _She was _not _going to play caretaker to a dog. She didn't know the first thing about animals, let alone one so young, and even if she did she didn't exactly have the best environment, resources, or personality to take care of it. Looking at the creature now, there was definitely an intelligence in its scaled face that surpassed most animals, even some people. How could she possibly take care of this thing?

She told the vet as much, to which he just grinned. The dog (_puppy_) constantly vied for her attention as the Rodian went through the basics of care, pulling out vials and bottles of medication and making a list of foods and other necessities. Asajj could only stand there, trying to wrap her head around how her one rare act of kindness for a scared, abandoned animal had come to this.

When he was done, the vet gazed down at the _akk_ pup, which had lowered its belly to the exam table and was currently trying to get Asajj to rub its head. "_akk _dogs are more than just animals," he said wistfully. "They are fierce companions to whomever they choose to bond with. It's not even so simple as that: it's a partnership that's created. If she's already bonded to you-" he pretended not to notice Asajj's flinch "-then she will follow you wherever you go."

"What if I don't want it?"

"Then," the vet sighed, "you might as well have left her in that alley. These bonds, they go deep. There's debate among xenobiologists about the severity of such connections between the dogs and their companions, but there have been cases of one dying not long after the other."

Asajj snorted. "You mean they die of grief."

The vet shrugged, hands in his coat pockets. "I'm no expert. It's just a hobby to study these things. But I can tell you this: if you take care of her, she'll take care of you."

Asajj looked down at the pup, apparently trying its best to be cute to get her attention. What the hell was she going to do?

That thought followed her all the way back to her hole of an apartment, the pup close at her heels. She seemed to be on autopilot as she set a bowl of prescribed food on the floor and watched blankly from the edge of her narrow cot while the pup devoured its contents. Asajj didn't realize that she was already thinking about tomorrow, and how when a new job came her way she could bring the animal with her and keep it safe at the same time.

Without even being conscious of it, she had already decided not to abandon the pup as she had been so many times herself. Her brief partnership with Ahsoka Tano had awakened something in her that she thought had died long ago: empathy. She knew all too well what it was like to be left alone by the people you trusted, to have everything ripped away in the blink of an eye through no fault of your own. She would sooner eat a rotten gundark foot than admit it, but that kind of hurt was something no sentient being with the smallest iota of a conscience should have to experience. Especially one so young and helpless and innocent as this _akk _pup.

Sleep took her in the midst of those thoughts, and with sleep came the nightmares. Fragmented and disjointed though they were, there was a sense of utter helplessness and terror that pervaded every second. She watched Ky Narec die all over again, heard Dooku order her execution again, saw her Sisters being massacred all around her once more, found herself running through the lower levels of Coruscant from the Jedi she had once fought beside...

Wait...that wasn't...

"You need to stop!" someone called. She froze in the nightmare and looked back. She knew that voice... "It's time to stop running, little one."

Her voice wasn't her own when she sobbed, "Master Narec!" and ran towards him. He felt solid against her when she threw her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. "I'm scared."

Familiar hands gently gripped her shoulders to push her back. Kind green eyes looked down at her. "I know. But you need to stop."

"They're after me!" she said quickly, desperately. "They're going to catch me! I'm not a killer, Master!"

Sadness and disappointment replaced the kindness in Narec's eyes at those words. "Yes you are, little one. You have killed so many. Your hands are covered in blood."

Asajj looked down at her hands to see that they were indeed dripping with hot, sticky blood that wasn't hers. She screamed. "What's going on?!"

When she looked up again, Narec's face had dissolved into shadow and strange things were moving about behind him. "So much death. Yet still you disappoint me, child." That wasn't Narec's voice. That was... "You have failed me for the last time."

The things that had been writhing and twisting in the background sped towards her at Dooku's last word. She screamed again...

...and bolted upright to finish the scream. It took her several long moments to get her heart rate and breathing under control, and far longer to stomp down the feeling of her soul being ripped apart. She nearly jumped out of her skin when something rough and wet touched her arm. The _akk _pup looked up at her with its lidless, fathomless eyes, one heavy foot on her thigh. It sniffed in her direction before licking her upper arm again. Asajj ran a hand over face and grumbled, "what do you want?"

As jarring as that nightmare had been, the flash of images and jumbled thoughts that suddenly flooded her mind nearly sent her reeling. There was no solidity to them except for one emotion that she could only interpret as sympathy. The pup softly butted its head against her arm and looked back up at her. This time, Asajj felt very clearly a thought that was something like "friend sad".

Her eyes went almost as wide as the pup's. She didn't know what to think. So she didn't. She just sank back onto the cot and let out a frustrated breath through her nose. Gentle waves rolled over her through the Force, trying to lull her back to sleep. When the _akk _pup wriggled under her arm to press itself into her side she didn't object. It was the source of that calming presence and she was too mentally drained by the nightmare/memory to fight it.

The dog was still there when she woke up from a thankfully dreamless night, but not at her side. It had decided that her chest made a much better bed than her thin mattress. She was about to shove it off of her when she noticed how peaceful and quiet it was. Besides, its weight wasn't stopping her from breathing, and although it was just a baby it still might have taken offense and bitten her. And she had no desire to get to know those razor-sharp teeth on a personal level.

So Asajj let it be. While it continued to sleep, she took the opportunity to study it more closely (without it trying to lick her face). At first glance, it was a bizarre amalgamation of lizard and mammal, something that had surely been created by some insane scientist in some black market lab. But from what the Rodian vet had said, _akk _dogs were the product of natural evolution on their native planet. Asajj mentally shrugged, neither knowing nor caring much about the history of the species. What she wanted to know was how it had ended up on Coruscant in the first place, and what kind of heartless asshole would so callously abandon it. If she ever found out, she would be sure to make his or her death one they would remember well after their body expired.

She shook her head once she realized where her thoughts were going. This insanity of playing mama to the ugly little thing would last exactly as long as it took for her to find someone else to pawn it off on. She wouldn't throw it away like its previous owner, but her life and personality weren't exactly suited to caring for anything or anyone else other than herself.

So that's what she would do: she'd feed it, then find it a new home. That's exactly what she would do.


End file.
